Bryan County Board of Education approves calendars for 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years

The Bryan County Board of Education, last Thursday, approved the proposed calendars for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years — which were selected in an online survey by staff and community members on the system’s website — at its monthly meeting held at Richmond Hill Primary School.

More than 1,500 parents, teachers, staff members and others in the community responded to the survey, with 1,021 (just over 65 percent) supporting Option 1 over Option 2. For both school years, students and staff will get an extra holiday the Friday before President’s Day, and Spring Break will continue to fall the week following Easter Sunday. A modification was made, based on public comment, to the 2014-15 calendar in order for Spring Break to follow Easter.

Superintendent Paul Brooksher thanked the public for the response to the proposals.

“We felt it was important to receive feedback from the parents and community,” he said. “To have that many responses was a huge success for the first time.”

In his report to the board, Brooksher also indicated that the system is continuing to gain students in the middle of the school year. The system hit right at 8,000 students in October and as of last Thursday, had 8,036 enrolled.

“I think that trend is illustrative of the direction we’re going to continue to go,” Brooksher said. “To grow 36 students in the middle of the year is not one of those normal growth bumps like at the beginning of the year or around Labor Day.”

In other business, the board:

• Heard from Richmond Hill Primary principal Mary Ann Tiedemann about that school’s activities this year. They included a stronger focus on statewide core principles in mathematics and activities based around those, a recent father-daughter dance and a student invention showcase to help spark interest in science and engineering.

• Recognized Bryan County Elementary speech pathologist Nancy Swany, who is retiring after 36 years in education and 25 with Bryan County schools.

• Approved a request by the South Bryan Recreation youth wrestling team to use the Richmond Hill High School cafeteria on March 15 for an end-of-year banquet.

• Accepted a donation of $700 to the Richmond Hill High School wrestling team from their booster club to cover travel and tournament expenses. The board also accepted several donations to the Bryan County Middle School soccer team from local businesses and individuals.

• Appointed vice chairman Joe Pacenka and chairman Eddie Warren as the system’s delegate and alternate, respectively, at the Georgia School Board Association’s annual summer conference in Savannah in June. The board also approved Warren’s appointment to serve on the Governmental Operations committee of the GSBA.

• Approved a request by Charis Peterson to build a permanent shelter to serve as a “cooling zone” for the Richmond Hill High School Marching Band during summer practices in order to earn the Gold Award in Girl Scouts.

• Moved into executive session to discuss personnel and legal matters.

• Had an informational discussion on a new field house for Bryan County High School, as well as a south Bryan well site discussion. Votes on those items will come at a later date.